y the jurist
Rudolph Gneist, whose essential thesis was that the failure of
parliamentary government in Prussia and the success of it in Great
Britain was attributable to the dissimilarity of the local
governmental systems of the two countries;[391] and by these writings
the practical proposals with which Bismarck came forward were given
important theoretic basis. Neither Gneist nor Bismarck sympathized
with the ideals of democracy, but both believed that the local (p. 267)
administrative authorities should be made to include not only a
paid, expert bureaucracy but a considerable element of unpaid lay or
non-official persons, drawn, however, principally from the large
landowners and taxpayers. The obstacles to be overcome, arising from
public indifference, the opposition of the existing bureaucracy, the
apprehensions of the Conservatives, and sectional differences and
antipathies, were enormous, but by proceeding slowly and in a
conciliatory spirit the Government was able eventually to execute the
larger portion of its plans. The first enactments, for the circles in
1872 and for the provinces in 1875, were applied only to those
provinces which had formed the old monarchy, but during the ensuing
ten years similar measures were extended to the remainder of the
kingdom, and, finally, after the dismissal of Bismarck, the task was
rounded out by a great Landgemeinde-Ordnung issued for the seven
eastern provinces in 1891. By this series of enactments the
administrative methods and machinery of the kingdom were reduced to
substantially the character which they to-day possess.

[Footnote 391: The most important of Gneist's works
in this connection are: Geschichte des
self-government in England (1863); Verwaltung,
Justiz, Rechtsweg (1867); Die preussische
Kreis-Ordnung (1871); and Der Rechtsstaat (1872).]

*286. Principles of the Administrative System.*--Although the system is
still one of the most complicated in Europe, it is infinitely simpler
than once it was, and the bureaucratic forces in it, if still
predominant, have been subjected to a variety of important restraints.
The principles which underlie it have been summarized by an English
writer as follows: "The first is the careful distinction drawn between
those internal affairs in which the central government is thought to
be directly concerned, and those which are held to